The best strategic leaders anticipate where their business is headed and see changes before others do. Far from being magicians, instead they shine at outside-in thinking that sharpens their ability to anticipate well. They know their customers extremely well, foresee emerging trends, and understand changing dynamics. The headwinds public sector agencies are daunting indeed, yet increasingly leaders are participating in strategic thinking processes that lead to strategic planning. More than a project, strategic planning serves as a catalyst to marshal precious resources towards desired goals.

Our view is that strategic planning must be seen as both a product and a process. As a process, it can be a thought-provoking, introspective, and comprehensive register of the key issues confronting your community and organization, as well as a perspective on the resolution of the issues. Moreover, consistent with the “painting the bridge” analogy strategic planning is a never-ending process.

In brief, our approach entails us partnering with members of your governing body, agency staff and frequently a Project Task Force using a range of proven methods and guiding them through a process during which:

Policy-makers participate in collegial discussions about the future of your community;

Headwinds or trends are identified;

Civic engagement is utilized via social media and community conversations;

The mission statement is reaffirmed;

The vision of the future is refreshed;

Goals and Objectives designed to move toward the vision are established for the next cycle;

Action plans that emphasize results, are adopted to accomplish the goals and objectives; and

A shared understanding is created between the governing body and the City/County Manager enabling clarity and cohesion about priorities and time commitments.

The outcome is a strategic plan consisting of an agreed upon set of priorities which guides decision-making for the pursuit of your vision. Click here to read more about our Strategic Planning services and the success stories we’ve helped create with several of our clients.

Ours has become an “experience economy” in which people have shifted from passive consumption to active participation. Opportunities surround us from video games, reality TV shows, continuing education and similar other platforms which have all grown substantially in recent years. Their significance lies in the emotional resonance they create because experiences are deeper and more meaningful than passive consumption. Recognizing this shift, many companies, and now governments, are investing in the delivery of experiences.

Citizens interact with the government not only at the functional and the cognitive levels but also at the emotional level. It has become evident that functional benefits alone are no longer sufficient to capture citizens and create strong communities. We are in the midst of a significant change in how we think about the role of citizens as consumers and moreover, in the process and design of development of better government. What do citizens feel about their community? How do they feel about their government? What touches them? What motivates them? Increasingly citizens think of themselves as active participants in the process of creation; similarly, government staff and elected officials, must become more comfortable with the erosion of the boundary between themselves and the public.

The explosion of options (i.e. social media channels) for government services marketing shouldn’t simply lead to more marketing; it should lead to smarter marketing. In establishing a successful customer strategy, you must provide answers to questions such as these: Who are our customers? Which of their needs can we address? Given our organization’s overall value proposition and strategy, what customer experience should we create? What capabilities do we need in order to deliver that experience? How should we organize ourselves accordingly, and what aspects of our culture can help us? In short, a well-designed customer strategy will coordinate many different functions, skills, and practices.

Here are the top 10 attributes of successful services organizations. Review these and see how well your organization stacks up:

They design the systems with the customer/consumer in mind first.

They have a service strategy for service that is clearly developed and clearly communicated.

They reward and recognize people who provide exemplary service.

They “talk” service regularly.

They have customer-friendly service systems.

They balance high-tech with high-touch, that is, they temper their systems and methods with the personal factor.

They recruit, hire, train and promote for service.

They market service to their customers.

They continually look for ways to improve their services.

They measure service and make the results available to their customers and employees.

Football season is upon us and optimism surrounds your team becoming a champion. Successful teams whether in sports or other walks of life, require people who choose the role of being a leader. Are you seeking compliance or commitment from your staff? What specifically is your game plan to increase your leadership effectiveness? Read on to learn practical and proven techniques to include in Your Leadership Playbook.

SERVE. Successful leaders possess a high level of self-awareness and are relentless in sustaining a positive arc in the trajectory of their leadership journey. They focus on the five practices of great leaders:

S – See the future by creating a vision of a high(er)-performing organization.

E – Engage and develop workforce members in the pursuit of the vision.

V – Value results and relationships. Leaders recognize they are in the people business, and that’s where everything starts and where every­ thing ends.

E – Embody the values. Exactly.

Change Manager: Effective leaders enable their team to keep the ball moving by being fluent in effective change-management techniques and understanding change is a process not an event. People and process-related methods are used to counter trends, maintain focus, and keep team members emotionally invested in the journey.

Fitness Trainer: Positive leaders serve as the fitness trainer for their organization’s most valuable resource—people’s brains, which require a steady diet of nourishment to stretch and adapt to shifting circumstances. In their role as trainers, leaders are committed to finding the resources needed so their workforce can visit the “brain gym” and continue their upward career trajectory.

Culture Chef. As it relates to the culture, leaders serve as the catalyst for innovation and advocate that the pursuit of progress be contagious among workforce members. High performing leaders adhere to the principle of trying to do 100 things 1% better instead of 1 thing 100% better as the ingredients necessary for continued success.

There are 53.5 million Millennials (those people born ranging from the early 1980s to around 2000) which comprise 1/3 of the existing workforce and by the year 2025 it will be 75%. Members of this generation own their careers and realize they possess a portfolio of skills and don’t define oneself simply by a job title. The questions for organizational leaders are how best to attract, develop, and retain them in their workforce.

Much has been said, and written about how to attract millennials and optimize their distinctive capabilities. Here are some proven approaches you can implement immediately:

Recruitment: Today’s emerging workforce is focused intently on finding meaning and experience beyond the traditional career. Even the most highly skilled employees don’t mind switching jobs, every few years, if it means they can grow personally, contribute more, gain autonomy or achieve better work-life balance. That’s why you must work diligently at fostering an employment brand that embodies these new cultural ideals (i.e. mobile apps and social medial channels to announce job openings, a user-friendly online job application process, contemporary work-life balance policies, etc.). You must communicate that you offer a place where people can be truly purposeful and you will be far more likely to gain the attention of both active and passive job seekers.

Leadership and Management Development – Most of your new-generation leadership will begin as first-level managers and may struggle to wield authority and manager performance issues with sufficient toughness so they will require more and different developmental attention than previous generations. Because much of their development experience has honed their ability to form and maintain peer network, they could find it difficult to be a boss.The new work environment requires adaptive application: the ability and mind-set to apply one’s competencies to new, different, and unexpected work situations. To close this gap, the Learning and Management Development Program, a key component of organization-wide Succession Planning, must move beyond developing targeted application skills to developing adaptive application skills. These three significant shifts should be factored into your Leadership Development Program:

Emphasize the fundamentals. If millennials are going to be managing others, they need to build management fundamentals such as delegation, providing timely feedback, and managing priorities.

Foster an adaptive leader mind-set. Instead of just building leader competencies, develop the ability and mind-set to apply competencies in an environment of constant and hard-to-predict change.

Enable leaders to practice adaptation. Instead of building for deep expertise in handling specific situations, provide opportunities for leaders to practice adapting to new and unfamiliar situations.

Activate performance support networks. Equip leaders with an extended support system of peers and teams to replace the reliance exclusively on managers to support their leaders.

Retention and Development – Best way to retain your high-performing Millennials (or as I refer to them, your “climbers”) is through engagement and the best way to engage your employees is to demonstrate your investment in them.

Learning Program – First up, replace the word Training with Learning, it’s a game changer. If you want the Millennials to stay, offer learning resources. Develop a series of learning courses that equip employees with the requisite leadership, management, and supervisory skills. Incorporate traditional topics such as managing employee feedback, business writing, communication skills, and delegation, as well as emerging topics like leading change, innovation, and performance management.

Mentoring – Young employees have grown up with a lot of guidance from their parents, teachers and society. In fact, these employees consider having a Mentor as a prerequisite of success. Establish a pool of employees who are willing to share their knowledge with others. A mentoring program is an easy and inexpensive way to effectively transfer tacit knowledge from senior to junior employees, as well as support employees who want to further their knowledge and skills for career advancement.

Career Management – The concept of a career is transitioning from the traditional ladder of upward mobility, to more of a lattice where employees move in different directions. Today’s employees might move up, sideways, or both — gaining essential skills and experiences to keep pace in today’s quickly changing workplace. Create a culture of career development by advocating it as an imperative by equipping senior leaders with the skills they need to have career conversations with employees on an ongoing basis. That’s more than the one annual performance review discussion.

Every day in the United States, 10,000 people turn 65. And according to the Pew Research Center, millennials now outnumber baby boomers in the workplace, 76 million to 75 million, while millennials will make up 75 percent of the workforce just 10 years from now.

As a result of the rapidly aging workforce, government organizations — small and large, rural and urban — are experiencing a brain drain that is placing their organizations at a critical juncture: The need for experienced and seasoned employees has never been greater, while those are the very workers who are most likely to be departing in the very near future. It’s clear that governments need to get serious about succession planning.

Small organizations are particularly challenged when an employee departs, since a natural successor may not already be within the workforce. That problem may not be as much of an issue for mid-sized and large organizations, but a wave of retirements can still disrupt service delivery. And even in larger organizations, it’s a challenge to replace a sole incumbent who handles a breadth of responsibilities or possesses extensive specialized knowledge.

Beyond simply replacing positions that become vacant, effective succession planning is an ongoing process of identifying, assessing and developing talent to ensure leadership, management and supervisory continuity throughout an organization and, moreover, to sustain its performance. The major focus is that replacements are prepared to fill key vacancies on short notice and that individuals have the development capacity to assume greater responsibilities and exercise increased technical proficiency and expanded management roles.

Succession planning is about a lot more than just increasing the employee training. Nor should it be the exclusive responsibility of the human-resources department. Effective succession planning requires advocacy and visible support by all members of the executive leadership team. A well-designed succession-planning program will enable an organization to align workforce requirements directly to strategic and operational plans; identify and implement strategies to transition from the existing workforce to the one that will be needed; and build the capability to continually shape the workforce to respond to emerging trends, shifting priorities and technological change.

Establishing systematic succession planning can entail a culture change. It can be a major shift in an organization where decision-makers may have been accustomed to filling one vacancy at a time. It requires commitment to a longer-term strategic view of talent needs, and doing it will bring a number of benefits:

Identifying the bench strength that is in place will help departments and divisions meet both long-term and emergency leadership, management and non-supervisory needs.

It sends a positive message throughout the workforce. Promoting people is good for morale, and promoting from within encourages people to take on responsibility, assume risk and grow through their achievements.

The organization will have a clearer sense of the strengths of internal candidates, enabling more informed selection and promotion decisions.

Effective succession planning in government is an ongoing, dynamic process, not a static, one-time objective. It not only empowers employees to achieve their professional goals but also supports organizational goals. It’s essential in today’s competition for talent.